WASHINGTON: Imran Khan has denied London tabloid reports that he and his wife Jemima Khan had made any decision to take custody of 12-year old Tyrian, the late Sita White’s daughter who, she claimed, was her “love child” with Imran.

Imran Khan has never confirmed Sita’s oft-repeated assertion and even in his conversation with this correspondent on Sunday morning by phone from New York, all he said on the subject was that Tyrian had been made to believe that he was her father. The remark implied that he was not her father.

He said Sita and Jemima knew each other well because Sita’s father, the late Lord White and Jemima’s father, the late Sir James Goldsmith, were very close friends of long standing.

Imran Khan said Tyrian was in London where both Sita’s mother and her sister lived and the child was living with them. Sita’s mother is currently in California and was with Sita when she collapsed and died in a yoga studio where she gave lessons in the ancient athletic and spiritual discipline.

Imran Khan also denied London tabloid reports that he had flown to California after Sita died on Thursday and agreed to adopt Tyrian. He said this was absolutely untrue, as he had come to Washington straight from Pakistan. He said it was up to Tryian’s grandmother and her aunt, Sita’s sister, to decide what to do. Right now, he added, everyone is in shock.

He said things would be clearer in a few days.

Earlier, London tabloid The Mail reported on Sunday that Imran Khan would take custody of Tyrian following the sudden death of her mother in the US on Thursday.

It stated that Imran flew to Los Angeles on Saturday night to bring home Tyrian after her multi-millionaire mother Sita White collapsed, having apparently suffered a heart attack near her home in Beverly Hills. Independent confirmation of The Mail claim was not available.

As much as I admire Imran the cricketer and the philantrophist I am really stung by the fact that he refuses to acknowledge young Tyrian as his daughter and refuses to take a paternity test to prove otherwise. How can a man whose party stands for the promotion justice refuse to acknowledge a child as his own when all indicators suggest that he is the dad. That is the least of her fundamentlal rights if Imran is actually her father.

So Imran needs to do either of two things

Accept her as his own come what may

or

Have an pathernity test by an independent agency and make the results public

Otherwise both his political as well his philantrophic careers are going to be hit for a six. We in the subcontinet are incredibly forgiving people when people admit to having made mistakes. However, we are not that forgiving when a person is proven to have erred and continues to deny it. The truth can be suppressed but it cannot be made to go away